Risk of Deportation Looms

The last week or so has thrust the family into a state of extended emergency. On Feb. 5, Ms. Vizguerra called a family meeting over dinner, banning electronics from the table to convey the seriousness of the matter. The family cats, Miranda and Zayra, meowed as she explained the plan.

If officials were to come to the home in the days before the meeting at the I.C.E. office, no one should answer the door, she said. If they gained entry, Luna, a reedy middle schooler with braces, should use her phone to film the events. Roberto should open the emergency contact list in his phone and begin to call family friends and advocates. And Zury, the youngest, should go straight to her parents’ bedroom, close the door and stay there. “I told them, ‘I know it’s going to be difficult for you,'” Ms. Vizguerra said. “‘I want you to be brave.'”

Three days later, the packing began, with the children stuffing their mother’s leggings, sweaters and shampoos into suitcases and boxes. Terrified by the prospect of familial separation, Ms. Vizguerra began to consider taking refuge at the First Unitarian Society church in Denver, whose congregants previously gave sanctuary to another immigrant.

She reminded Luna which drawers belonged to which child and told her it would be her job to make sure her siblings dressed properly. She showed her where the extra soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste were kept.

Then Ms. Vizguerra stocked the refrigerator with microwave dinners, something even a 6-year-old could make.

–“Immigrant Mother in Denver Takes Refuge as Risk of Deportation Looms” by Julie Turkewitz in today’s New York Times

As the Trump administration takes a wrecking ball to our democracy, it is hard to examine each individual crack.

Yet soon we will experience an unraveling of our immediate communities and the society at large if the deportations continue.

As the Trump administration bullies the press and treats news organizations as the opposition, stories like that of Jeanette Vizguerra–mother of three–serve as authentic news.

The image of twelve-year-old Luna preparing to take care of her younger siblings is a sobering dispatch from a cruel world. It looks like her youth is officially over.